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Pakistan prisoner attacked in India jail dies

Sanaullah Haq was attacked by another inmate in apparent revenge attack for death of Indian prisoner in Pakistani jail.

09 May 2013 11:58 GMT

Pakistani High Commissioner Salman Bashir (C) paid a visit to Sanaullah Ranjay after he was taken to hospital [AFP]

A Pakistani prisoner jailed in India has died after he was attacked by another inmate in an apparent revenge attack for the death of an Indian prisoner in a Pakistani jail.

Sanaullah Haq, also known as Sanaullah Ranjay, who was admitted to a hospital in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh with serious head injuries, had suffered renal failure late on Wednesday, the doctor said on Thursday.

"His condition was extremely critical. He died early morning," a senior doctor at the government hospital said on condition of anonymity.

"Although it's scant consolation I'd like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq and my sympathies for their loss," Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state where Haq had been imprisoned since 1999, wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Last week, Pakistan said the assault was "condemnable" and called on India to punish the attacker. India said it regretted the incident and gave consular access to Ranjay.

The hospital would hand over the body to two of his relatives who had arrived in India from the Pakistani city of Sialkot "as per the instructions of the government", the doctor said.

Ranjay, who has been serving a jail term for a 1990s bomb blast that killed 10 people, was attacked by a prisoner identified as a former Indian army soldier just 24 hours after Sarabjit Singh's death in a Lahore jail that drew strong reaction from India.

Last weekend, demonstrators took to the streets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to protest against the attack on Ranjay.

The prison violence could fuel tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, whose relations were hit by a border flare-up earlier this year.

The neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed region of Kashmir, which they each control in part but claim in full.

New Delhi says 535 Indian prisoners, including 483 fishermen, are in Pakistani jails, while 272 Pakistani prisoners are behind bars in India.